Small
by PrInCeSsFBi
Summary: "Jesus!" Dawn sprinted into the bathroom and placed a hand on the back of Anders's neck. "Breathe Anders!" He tensed under her touch before he took a gasp of air that sounded way too painful to be faked. "You're not hungover, are you?" Anders shook his head before he pressed his forehead to the cool porcelain. "And I'm the bitch who came and made you sicker. Awesome."


**Disclaimer: I own nothing **

Dawn was absolutely most certainly no doubt in her mind done with Anders's shit. She had given up trying to quit this job, she put too much into it, but if she had been considering it she would be taking her resignation to Anders right then instead of an arm full of forms.

"Sick." Was all the text message had said. More like hungover after a night of booze and an endless amount of sex. That day for some reason was the day Dawn was going to put her foot down. She was not his mother, she was his employee and if she was going to be putting in the amount of effort he damn sure wasn't going to wuss out on one of their easiest days of the week. He had to sit at his desk and sign papers. She even starred every place for him!

Well, she had had enough and with a wild whip of her purse over her shoulder she stormed from her car, through the door, and up to Anders's apartment before giving a sharp knock of her fist to the door. No one answered but she knew he was in there and she wasn't going to let him win this time. If that meant she had to sit with him until he finished every last one of those forms then so be it. She knocked again and again until the door swung open and her fist met with open air.

She was startled back for a moment at the sight before her. Anders's eyes were the first thing she noticed. Deep dark circles ran under glazed over dulled blue orbs.

"Dawn." Anders wheezed. Dawn shook herself from her stupor. She needed to remain firm if they were going to get anything done today and no amount of puppy eyes from Anders was going to change that. Pressing her lips together she moved past Anders and into his living room. Pulling out a chair at the table and placing the forms down on the glass she held a pen to him with a raised brow.

"You have papers to sign."

But Anders didn't move and stared at her and then back out the door and then at her again.

"I sent you a text message, Dawn." He said as if confused at the sudden change. Closing the door he pulled the sleeves of his sweatshirt up his arms and then crossed them over his chest not moving towards the papers.

"And I," She was very aware that she could lose her job at any moment. But she had had enough and Anders was going to know it. "Don't care if you have the hangover from hell itself. You have papers that need to be signed and you can either do them here or at the office. But…But you are doing them!"

Anders could only stare at her, mouth open and eyes narrowed, before he sighed and walked to the table. Well, it was more like a hobble but Dawn was determined and no amount of Anders's begging eyes, whining, and tantrums were going to dissuade her.

* * *

Anders was moving at a lot slower pace than she was expecting. It had taken him twenty minutes to barely get though half of the paperwork. She could only watch as he would stare down at the paper, zoning out, before he would snap out of it and have to reread the paper and then sign it. She had a suspicion that he was just trying to make it harder than was necessary out of spite for Dawn taking away his day off. Still, she couldn't help but waver every time he would turn his face to cough into his wrist.

_No, Dawn. No. This is what he wants. For you to feel sorry for him and then to take away the work and let him go back to sleep off his hangover so he can go out later tonight. But… why's he turning green?_

The pen dropped so suddenly from Anders's hand but he was already in the bathroom before it could hit the ground. Dawn moved hesitantly towards the retching sounds that echoed throughout the otherwise silent apartment. Anders had all but collapsed onto the floor, his face lost in the depths of the porcelain bowl, as he convulsed desperately. Expelling his stomach didn't seem to take long but his body had turned into panic mode and just continued to writher in attempts to get rid of everything that may have been inside him, organs and all.

"Jesus!" Dawn sprinted into the bathroom and placed a hand on the back of Anders's neck. "Breathe Anders!"

He tensed under her touch before he took a gasp of air that sounded way too painful to be faked.

"You're not hungover, are you?" Anders shook his head before he pressed his forehead to the cool porcelain. "And I'm the bitch who came and made you sicker. Awesome."

"Nah. Don't flatter yourself, Dawn. I've been like this for days. Way longer than before you showed up." He tried to make his voice sound light and teasing but the way his rasping sounded wet and the dull heat radiating off his skin killed any sort of cheekiness he could muster. Wetting one of the hand towels she handed it to him with a frown.

"Are you having trouble breathing?"

Anders seemed to think for a moment and Dawn wondered if he was going to lie. Maybe she was overstepping here. He was her boss after all and yes she did way more than any assistant every did but that didn't mean he wanted her there hovering and-

Anders nodded.

Dawn pressed her lips together. "Ok," she said. "Give me two seconds."

It was a good thing she knew Anders's apartment like the back of her hand because as she threw her shoes off she walked to the linen closet and grabbed several towels before she returned to the bathroom. Anders had pressed himself into the corner between the wall and the toilet, eyes closed, and head lying at an awkward angle on his shoulder. He was tense and still breathing that shallow way that made Dawn's chest hurt just hearing it.

Closing the door to the bathroom, she folded one of the towels expertly before pressing it along the crack at the bottom and then did the same to the door leading to the bedroom.

"Preparing us for a chemical disaster?" Anders quipped peering at her through half lids.

Dawn looked up at him with a knowing smirk before she went over to the shower, turning the water to the hottest it could go. "Home remedy. My Gran used to do it with us any time we had a cold."

It took maybe a minute before the whole bathroom filled up with steam. Her skin felt clammy and her hair began to stick to the back of her neck but as she leaned back against the counter she watched as Anders slowly began to relax with both the sound of the running water and the steam. His breathing still sounded rough but the steam seemed to be doing the trick as his eyes began to droop.

"How was your weekend?" The question came from a thick silence the both of them had been sitting in and Dawn looked over at Anders while tucking a hair behind her ear.

It caught Dawn by surprise and she suddenly remembered it was Monday. Monday was the beginning of their routine. Anders would walk in about twenty minutes late and place a scone down in front of her as if to make up for it. He always asked her that question. 'How was your weekend?' She never thought he cared nor meant it yet she praddled on like she always did with her gift of the gab and he would walk and listen before sitting at his desk with a 'good'.

"Uh," she said feeling even more awkward saying it in the bathroom with Anders curled around the toilet. "It was good. I had dinner with my dad, a fancy one with steak knives and everything ya know."

"Ah." Anders sighed approvingly.

"We do it every month. Dad will come and take me out to dinner and we just talk. He's always been like that." She looked over at Anders half expecting a snide remark but Anders only blinked taking deep breaths as the steam relaxed his chest. "What about you?"

"Hmm?"

"What about your dad?"

"He buggered off when I was fourteen." Anders wheezed before he tried to swallow while the steam let him. But he winced when his raw throat contracted with the swallow. "He stuck around long enough to tell me what a disappointment I was. _Too small to do anything right_. He stuck around for Ty to start to get attached to him and for Mike to start working with him. But he couldn't stick around to watch Axl grow up." He didn't look at her when he said all of this and when he was done he used one of the towels she had brought in as a pillow and closed his eyes. But Dawn could only stare unable to say anything. She had known the older brother, Mike, had raised his younger brothers. But the Johnson family wasn't exactly a 'here let me show you baby pictures kind' of family. Still, she hadn't been expecting that.

"I'm sorry." She whispered unsure how to respond.

"S'okay." He whispered before he coughed again. The steam had started to fade as the water turned cold and so Dawn went over to the shower and turned the water off and let Anders wait out the last of the steam. By the time the bathroom had cleared up and just felt muggy and damp he had fallen asleep. Dawn opened the door and cool air hit her face smacking her out of the cautious trail she had been walking around after Anders's little breach into his personal life.

"Anders?" She called him from his uncomfortable sleep.

"Hmm?" She tugged at his arm and he wordlessly stood up on weak legs that shook under his weight. In fact, his whole body was shaking and she could see the flush of a fever in his cheeks.

"Grab some new clothes." She turned and went to clean up the bathroom leaving him with some dignity to get dressed on his own. When she returned though, he had just finished pulling a shirt over his back. It was an old sports t-shirt that swallowed him whole and she knew it wasn't his. Before she could comment though, he coughed again, a heavy thick cough that was wet and jostled his whole frame.

_Too small to do anything right._

She got him settled under the duvet, propped up against the pillows, and left the room before she could start to cry.

She tightened her fists and paced angrily in Anders's kitchen. What an absolute prick! No wonder Anders was the way he was. And Ty! Ty who always looked so sad. Axl was left to be raised by his brothers from a prick father who couldn't give a damn. It made her angry. It made her furious! It…

There was a sharp series of coughs from the bedroom that knocked her pitchfork out of her hand before she could join a mob and she glanced back towards the room. Looking at her watch she sighed. Grabbing her purse and jacket she scribbled a note and set the paper by Anders under a glass of water before she rushed out of the apartment.

It took her way too long for her liking to go to the grocery store and come back but about little over an hour later she was bringing bags of groceries with supplies. Chicken broth, applesauce, a brand new humidifier, an endless supply of cough supplements and tissues, and one of those frozen slush drinks. Grabbing the humidifier and the slush drink she went into Anders's room. He was asleep, she could see, despite the desperate short way he was gasping for air with each breath.

"Anders...Anders." Blue eyes once again glazed over opened to look at her confused but she held up the spoon and slush drink to him with a smile. "Take small spoonfuls and just let it sit in your mouth. It'll help your throat and give you something with a bit of taste to it."

He took the drink and spoon from her and did as he was told. Going over to the humidifier, she plugged it in and turned it on creating a lulling hum that after about a fourth of the drink was making Anders's eyes drop with sleep. Taking the drink and fixing the covers she exited the room with as little sound as possible.

* * *

Dawn sighed as she stirred the chicken broth. She had cleaned the apartment top to bottom and any lingering germ had to answer to her. It had gotten dark outside and Anders had slept the rest of the day. Yet, she was still here. She had thought about maybe texting Ty to see if he would come over and keep her company but thought better of it. Ty's and Anders' relationship was unsteady at best and Ty had a way of pointing out the times when Anders had manipulated her into doing something she didn't want to do. Had he done that earlier? She liked to think of herself as a strong independent woman who could make up her own mind but Anders certainly did have a way of getting her to do what he wanted. Her boss wasn't above turning up the puppy dog eyes to certain clients when he needed to but… what was she thinking? Anders couldn't possibly be that much of a prick could he?

A harsh sounding cough knocked her from her train of thought and she looked to the bedroom uncertain. Still, with lingering doubts, the cough sounded like Anders was awake, she thought. She would get him set with the chicken broth and then be on her way to soak in a long bath with wine and pretend she hadn't just gotten the wool pulled over her eyes. _Again. _

Anders turned to look at the crack of light that pooled in through the door way when Dawn walked in and he frowned.

"What are you still doing here?" He croaked. Dawn crossed her arms as she walked into the room with a frown. Well, he certainly wasn't catching up on her cues she was giving him to know she had her suspicions because he just kept staring at her confused as to why she was there. Her skepticism drained away rather quickly though as she came closer to the bed to see the tremors running throughout Anders's body. She didn't answer him and placed a hand on his forehead.

Anders's low burn of a fever had turned into a furnace and he was shaking so much it was entirely possible he couldn't even stand.

With a pucker of her lips she nodded. "I'm taking you to the doctor."

Anders's eyes widened comically before his tongue darted out to lick his chapped lips.

"You really don't have to do that, Dawn."

"Yes," she said standing and going to his dresser for another sweatshirt. "I do."

"Dawn." She turned to him with a raised brow and he was staring at her with such a look that she was worried he had turned delusional. It was such a serious stare yet his words sounded like honey to her ears. "You really don't want to take me to the doctor."

"Anders. Yes, I do. You're sicker than a dog. Now get up before I drag you to the car." She held out his sweatshirt expectantly and he could only curse before he did as he was told looking incredibly confused. It probably was just the fever.

* * *

"Bronchitis bordering on pneumonia." The doctor said with a grimace. Anders's X-ray was held up against the light as he pointed to the fluid building up in his lungs. The stark lighting and bare walls made Anders look like the walking dead and Dawn wasn't entirely sure if he was even responsive. He had been silent since they left his apartment other than to answer the nurse's questions in as short of an answer as he could give. "For the most part you are going to feel an incredible amount of discomfort. My main concern, Mr. Johnson, is your fever. It's unusually high."

"Right, so what do we do now?" Dawn asked.

"Right now all we can do is give him antibiotics to see if we caught it on time but I feel it's best we hospitalize him to watch out for it."

"No." Dawn and the doctor both turned to the up until then silent patient but Anders had his face firmly set. Dawn had seen it enough times to realize Anders wasn't going to change his mind and could only sigh. "Thanks doc but no thanks."

"Mr. Johnson I..."

"I'm fine. I don't need the hospital. You do an excellent job and there are other people who need you more than me. I'm going to go home now."

The doctor stared at Anders as if transfixed by his words before he blinked and gave a nod.

She didn't know how he did it. She really didn't. Sicker than she had ever seen him, Anders still was somehow able to get what he wanted from everyone. True, she had heard him use more 'poetic' words than what he said to the doctor but it still did the trick and the next thing she knew they were leaving with Anders's prescription.

"Wait here. I'm going to get the car because at the pace you're going it's going to be winter again."

Anders just rolled his eyes at her but said nothing as she walked through the parking lot to the car. She meant it though. Anders had looked like he was ready to just sleep on the ground and she could get the car much quicker if he waited. But not quick enough it seemed because as she navigated through the parked cars she spotted Anders talking to a tall brunette doctor.

_Oh for the love of God. _Dawn couldn't believe it. And the bitch was beautiful! Even in dark ugly scrubs. Dawn hoped Anders coughed on her. But as she pulled up to the curb she didn't see Anders's classic smirk that screamed 'one way or another you're going to end up in my bed naked' nor did he seem to be enjoying talking to the tall brunette either. The brunette spotted Dawn and with a smirk turned on her heel going back into the hospital.

"Who was that?" Dawn asked as Anders huddled into the car.

"No one for you to worry about, Dawn." Anders simply said with a smile before he turned to stare out the window.

The awkward had returned. Dawn could feel it and it was clawing at the car trying to escape. All it succeeded in doing was making her glance over at Anders who other than shivering again remained completely silent. Maybe she should have kept him in the hospital. And when exactly did she become his mother? The whole purpose of her even going to the apartment that morning was to _not _put up with Anders's shit. But it wasn't shit, she thought. Anders was ill, physically exhausted, and in and out of coherence.

And he didn't have anyone to take care of him and for some reason that didn't feel right in Dawn's gut. It was weird to think how alone her boss actually was. Despite all the girls and his brothers just popping back into his life, he didn't have anyone.

Except her.

"Thank you, Dawn." Anders said when they parked at his apartment with a familiar flippant tone, though his voice was raspy and his breathing was still horrible sounding. He pulled himself out of her car before she could stop him. "You can go home now."

"Anders…." Dawn called jumping out of the car. Anders turned to her with his smirk in place.

"You can stop mothering now, Dawn. Go home." His words were like honey again and she could only stare at him.

"O…Ok." Her lips puckered again in worry. "Call me if you need anything."

"Goodnight, Dawn." Anders said with a smile before he shuffled up to his door.

She drove away like he asked but she didn't want too. She really didn't. He hadn't manipulated her that time, as Ty would have insisted. But she had seen the look in his eyes. It had been similar to the eyes she saw in the shower, the eyes when he had woken up with a fever. He had pushed her away. And she didn't know what had set it off but she knew in that moment, when she drove away, that Anders had felt too small again.


End file.
